


Different, all the same

by MontyPink



Category: The Dark Crystal (1982), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: I'm adding characters as I go along, Multi, Other, Roleswap, Roleswap AU, This will be a longer story but not all chapters are related
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28616862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MontyPink/pseuds/MontyPink
Summary: Story collection of my TDC RoleSwap AU! I'll add more chapters as I go along. Changes may happen, as i'm still trying to get the feel for it.NOT a retelling of the movie and show.
Kudos: 12





	Different, all the same

He kept his eyes on the tall creature before him. He knew he shouldn't call them that. He really shouldn't. It was a crime most punishable. Perhaps not death, no they never mentioned death. But it would likely be something far worse than that. The type that made you want to yearn for the sweet kiss of it.

Rian respected his father, but bits of that respect got chipped away when he saw the man like this. He was bowing his head and listening to whatever that thing had to say. He shouldn't call them things either. It was wrong. But what else was he supposed to call them. According to the stories they just were there one day. And that was it. Everyone had just accepted that. They accepted that tall, towering creatures with talons and beaks now lorded over them. In exchange for what? Knowledge? Technology. Honestly he could do without. The boy knew he should be grateful, it was something that was told to him time and time again. But he didn't want to be grateful for a life like this. His cage, though gilded, felt suffocating and he wished he could be free like the podlings or even the farmers nearby. But he was the prince, the next in line to rule the gelfling. Perhaps then he would understand his father's stress, but now it just angered him. The willingness to act powerless to please these seemingly immortal but ageing beings.

"It's an honor to be in your company, Emperor." Rian watched how his father bowed even deeper when he said that, the headdress making sound as he did so. "But to what do we owe it?" There was a slight nervousness in the voice and Rian picked up on it. He wondered if the others in their company did too. 

"I worry about our safety." The one know as Emperor spoke. They had names. Rian knew they had. But they only referred to themselves by their title. He figured that made them more divine. Demonic more like it. "The soldiers you have been sending to us as of late have been... lacking." The Emperor's voice was high pitched but upbeat. If anything he sure was charismatic. He played with the red strings tied around his fingers. "Do you want us to perish?" 

"N-no, sire it's-"

"Because my General says that no amount of training can get them in shape." 

Rian looked at the one he called General. Somehow far shorter than the Emperor. White tufts of hair peeked from under his golden helmet and he was leaning on a sword also gold. 

"I assure you still provide the best?"

"Assure!?" The General scoffed. "H-honestly the only thing that-" But he went quiet when the Emperor tapped his crown with his talon. 

"Enough, General." 

"SSSSSire." There was an entire conversation hidden in that single word. A conversation that wasn't spoken but so obviously there. The General bowed his head and left the chambers, perhaps to wait outside, perhaps to throw a fit. 

"I expect better, Ordon." The Emperor spoke again when he was sure his fellow skeksis had left. "I am sure I do not need to remind you of the fact that you are extremely replaceable. Perhaps I shall grand the honor of leader of the Gelfing to a Sifa next time." Rian felt watched but said nothing. "Perhaps that will better for all of us." 

Without saying as much as a goodbye he left the two gelfing alone. A puppet king and his puppet son. 

"Father, I need-" 

"Enough, Rian." Ordon sighed as he let himself fall on the throne, rubbing his head. "I am tired of your whining. Things are the way they are. They are the way they supposed to be. Do not challenge me right now. I know you are young and I know you want to do better. One day you will sit where I sit and you'll understand why I can't live in those hopeless fantasies of yours." 

__

SkekShod didn't understand why skekGra preferred walking. They were the General and the Emperor, surely they were allowed more luxury. But skekGra claimed to like these gelflings. Often he made them watch little puppet shows he put on and they were wise not to criticize it. 

"The truth, skekShod."

An order. And you always follow the Emperor's orders. 

"Don't you t-think they are getting too comfortable sire?"

"Compared to who? You?" The other stopped walking. "Who made me take time out of my precious day, who send me to home of those who are meant to serve us and for what? The suspect that they are getting too comfortable? Need I remind you, skekShod." 

The usage of his name made him swallow hard.

"That I build this empire. I succeeded where all of you failed. Without me, there would be nothing!" The faint smell of smoke left his beak and skekShod blinked to get the smell out of his own. "Who would lead you? SkekSo? That horrid beast that lives in the woods?" SkekGra let out a deep and hearty laugh. "Now that's a joke!" He turned around, his simple robes fluttering behind him. "What else am I supposed to do today?" 

The General stayed a few steps behind. "sssssskekZok is-" He would argue back but he liked not being in severe pain more than the temporary satisfaction of an argument. 

Another laugh interrupted him. "The Mariner? Visiting me? Well, isn't that something else!"

"Sssssire, y-you... asked for him..." SkekShod tried gently. Often he was left to wonder if the Emperor was all there. He forgot things, he yelled randomly and had grown obsessed with smoking. The General noticed he'd be cozy with Gelfling, inviting them to watch his shows and eat with him. Was that the point? Weren't they meant to serve the skeksis? Weren't those skekGra's words? 

"Right..." The Emperor nodded a few times, clearly having forgotten. "Right."

And for the rest of their travels, neither spoke.

__

SkekGra desired to talk to skekZok alone and as he desired it, so it happened. 

The Mariner wasn't scared of his Emperor. But he had the appropriate amount of respect for him. Appropriate being the keyword. He knew not to drink things he was offered by him or his Ritual-Master. He knew not to speak unless spoken to. All rules he could follow. Not that he spend time here. He adored being away and on the open sea. SkekZok enjoyed the fact that he looked better than most. He still had some of his youth to him, unlike some. 

"The tides are changing." 

"Huh?" The blue eyed one looked up from his cup with contents he never intended on drinking. 

"I thought I'd use a term you are comfortable with, hah!" The Emperor laughed. "But in all seriousness. Can I trust you, Mariner.

No. 

He couldn't

But was that really that odd? Skeksis didn't trust each other. They tolerated each other. It was part of the reason he left. That constant fighting and attacking. That always wanting to be the centre of attention. He did like that, but he rather be worshipped easily than fight for it. 

The Emperor sniffed the air. "I feel it.. I can smell it. Change is coming. Thing is... from who?" He gave an accusing look. "You?"

SkekZok kept his lips sealed and skekGra laughed. "I almost got you there. No..." His voice got serious again. "I know you did well hiding that shard for me. I know no one will look for it. I don't even know where it is. I appreciate that. And you, Patron of the Sifa. They have you displayed on their ships! Of course they would never suspect you. No matter what happens, you seem to play for their team. Good.. I like that." 

The Mariner watched as skekGra took a drag from his pipe. "SkekUng..."

"The Scientist?" SkekZok raised a brow. "What?"

"He's planning something. I can tell. I can feel it." 

All skekZok felt was the paranoia coming from his sire. The skeksis before him was overthinking and panicking. The Mariner wondered what was in that pipe of his, he wondered why he looked so pale and so purple. How did he look older than all of them. SkekZok got fresh air so he understood himself but the others? Something wasn't adding up. 

"Then skekSo..."

"The Hunter?" He scoffed. "I thought you didn't pay him no mind. Said he was just a boogeyman made up by gelfling. Why worry about him, sire? If you, yourself, claimed he was useless and not fit to rule even a single podling?" 

"The Satirist has joined him?"

"SkekVar?" 

"Yes, skekVar. I had to banish him. You must understand. What good is a jester when he cannot even finish his own joke due to his giggles and snorts? It annoyed me. So he had to go. I had honestly thought he would come crawling back within mere days but the Hunter has taken a liking to him it seems. Odd."

"Odd..." The other agreed, though it was a half lie. The combination of skekSo and skekVar was odd to him. But he himself had strong feelings for one of them. He always thought he was an outlier and odd because of it. The other would likely never return what he felt. Not that the Mariner knew what he felt. He just knew that it hurt but felt good at the same time. Apart was painful, together was full of yearning for a thing he could not have. 

"And now skekSil..."

SkekZok furrowed his brows and then shot them up in surprise. "The Conqueror!?" 

"No longer... Heretic now. I had no choice but to brand him as one. Speaks of unity. Speaks of peace. He'll destroy all that I build so I had to silence him. I had to. A spike... that's all it took but I wonder if it lasts... I wonder if he is alive." The Emperor looked at skekZok as if he hoped he had an answer. When he didn't he just scoffed. "You..."

"Me, sire?" The Mariner cocked his big head. In a fight he would likely win against the Emperor but would he be able to survive the fallout? 

"You. I am... relying on you. You are the strongest that I have left."

Now it was the other's turn to scoff. "I'm sure skekShod will be delighted to hear that." He rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm sure he's-"

"He is getting cocky and needs to be taken down a few pegs." Another drag and the air filled with purple smoke that burnt skekZok's eyes. "He is forgetting his place. He is... getting too comfortable." 

SkekZok swallowed. "I am not following." His mouth felt dry and anger boiled within him like swamp water soup. 

"You will soon." The Emperor rose from his seat and got closer, with a jar in hand. Whatever was in it, it was very angry. "Peeper Beetle." He held the jar up in the faint light of the room. "Thra's fauna is truly beautiful." SkekGra turned the jar around, inspecting the thing from every angle. "I'm sure you don't need an introduction." 

He didn't. skekNa, that horrid Ritual-Master. By the Crystal he hated that title. Nothing more than a glorified torturer that one was. SkekNa once let such a creature lose on himself. To prove that his Rituals were just and none lethal. Now he had only one eye and in skekZok's absence had lost an arm too. He wondered how it happened, delighted in the fact that skekNa had been in pain, but he didn't dare ask. 

"I am not a seafarer myself." SkekGra went on. "But I do figure that you need both eyes to be a skilled Mariner..." 

A threat. 

One that would be followed up upon.

"What is it, that you desire, my Emperor?" SkekZok asked, his blues fixated on the jar. 

"Your loyalty, skekZok." He laughed again. "Just your loyalty." 


End file.
